Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Aerial view from a Kyodo News helicopter on 15 August 2021 shows the flooded Saga Prefecture city of Takeo in southwestern Japan, following record-breaking rain. Photo: Kyodo News

Record rains lash wide areas of Japan, three feared dead after landslide – Japan braces for more torrential downpours – “I’ve experienced three floods like this so far, but this is the worst”

TOKYO, JAPAN (AFP) – Japan braced for further downpours on Sunday as rescuers sifted through flood and landslide damage after record rain that left at least three dead. Residents returned to check on their mud-covered homes in the southwest where nearly 2 million people were advised to urgently seek shelter on Saturday as rivers overflowed. […]

Smoke and flames from the Dixie fire are seen from Wolf Creek Road west of Greenville, California, 4 August 2021. Photo: InciWeb

Dixie Fire grows to second largest in California history – “We need to acknowledge, just straight up, these are climate-induced wildfires”

By Tim Stelloh 8 August 2021 (NBC News) – The Dixie Fire became the second largest wildfire in California history Sunday as thousands of residents remained under evacuation orders and more than 10,000 buildings stood in the blaze’s path. The fire, which began July 14 and leveled much of the historic Sierra Nevada town of Greenville […]

A man watches the flames as wildfire approaches Kochyli beach near Limni village on the island of Evia, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Athens, Greece, late Friday, 6 August 2021. Wildfires raged uncontrolled through Greece and Turkey for yet another day Friday, forcing thousands to flee by land and sea, and killing a volunteer firefighter on the fringes of Athens in a huge forest blaze that threatened the Greek capital's most important national park. Photo: Thodoris Nikolaou / AP Photo

Thousands flee wildfires in Greece – Forest and homes burn during “nightmarish summer” of heatwave and drought – “For the next 40 years we will have no job, and in the winter, we are going to drown from the floods without the forests that were protecting us”

By Elena Becatoros, Demetris Nellas, and Michael Varaklas 8 August 2021 ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting a line across Evia, the country’s second-largest island, isolating its northern part. Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of […]

A water bottle is placed at a small vigil for Sebastian Francisco Perez as the community gathers to remember him at Ernst Nursery and Farm in Saint Paul, Oregon on Saturday, 3 July 2021. Mr. Perez was found unresponsive in a field around 3:30 p.m. on 26 June 2021, during the record heatwave, according to the St. Paul Fire District. OSHA has opened investigations into Ernst Nursery and Farms and Brother Farm Labor Contractor, who provided workers to the nursery. Photo: Brian Hayes / Statesman Journal / Imagn

Regulators refuse to step in as U.S. workers languish in extreme heat

By Ariel Wittenberg and Zack Colman 8 August 2021 (POLITICO) – When it gets so hot that the hallucinations start, and her eyes hurt and her spit begins to foam, construction worker Sharon Medina disappears behind a wall of co-workers to sneak a sip of water. She discovered the hard way not to complain to […]

“Insert Human Sacrifice” Copyright © 2021 James P. Galasyn. Historical image of Moloch is from the Mary Evans Picture Library.

Moloch: first of the new technogenic viruses

7 August 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus is widely understood to be the most recent virus to have jumped the species barrier to humans[1]. In this post, I propose the idea that COVID-19 is the first virus to jump the platform barrier also, from natural biology to human technology. COVID-19 exists now […]

Cars and homes destroyed by the Dixie Fire line central Greenville on Thursday, 5 August 2021, in Plumas County, California. Photo: Noah Berger / AP Photo

Wildfire explodes to third-largest in California history – “We’re seeing truly frightening fire behavior. We really are in uncharted territory.”

By Daisy Nguyen and Noah Berger 6 August 2021 GREENVILLE, California (AP) – A Northern California wildfire that is now the third-largest in state history had burned for weeks, mostly in remote wildland areas with few people, before it roared through the little mountain community of Greenville, driven by shifting winds and bone-dry vegetation. Eva […]

Flames consume a home on Highway 89 as the Dixie Fire tears through the Greenville community of Plumas County, California, on Wednesday, 4 August 2021. “We lost Greenville tonight,” U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who represents the area. Photo: Noah Berger / AP Photo

Wildfire destroys California town – “We lost Greenville tonight” – 2021 fire season on track to be California’s worst ever

By Christopher Weber and Noah Berger 5 August 2021 GREENVILLE, California (AP) – A 3-week-old wildfire engulfed a tiny Northern California mountain town, leveling most of its historic downtown and leaving blocks of homes in ashes, while a new wind-whipped blaze destroyed homes as crews braced for another explosive run of flames Thursday amid dangerous […]

Map of the U.S. showing the Covid risk levels and vaccination percentages, per county, 4 August 2021. The counties with the lowest vaccination rates hanve the highest infection rates. The highest Covid risk levels are in Louisiana and Florida. Graphic: Covid Act Now

Graph of the Day: U.S. Covid vaccination rates and risk levels by county, 4 August 2021

4 August 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – Republican election strategy became clearer today, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blamed exponential increases in Covid infection rates on immigrants at the Southern border, deflecting blame from the unvaccinated populations in Florida and other Republican-controlled states. This ridiculous idea is easily tested by examining the spatial distribution of case […]

Farmer Fernando Enriquez Sr. looks at one of the stunted, blistered red sweet onions in Walla Walla, Washington on 28 July 2021, after the unprecedented heatwave of June 2021 destroyed his crops. Photo: Greg Lehman / Walla Walla Union Bulletin

Record 2021 heatwave cooked Walla Walla sweet onions to mush – “It’s unprecedented. It’s just never that hot at the beginning of June.”

By Emry Dinman 3 August 2021 (The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin) – In June 2021, as the sun baked the ground, harvest began at Enriquez Farms, a midsized operation in Walla Walla specializing in the region’s famous sweet onions. Up to that point, the alliums had thrived in the warm weather, and Fernando Enriquez Sr., the […]

Screenshot from “Honest Government: Ad Hotel Quarantine and Vaccines” by The Juice Media, 30 July 2021. Shown are headlines describing how experts are calling for urgent action on Covid hotel quarantine in Australia. Photo: The Juice Media

Honest Government Ad: Hotel Quarantine and Vaccines in Australia – “You can eat a bag of dicks”

30 July 2021 (The Juice Media) – Hello, I’m from the Australien Government. Many of you are wondering, how did we manage to go from Zero Covid and being the envy of the world to being an experiment in what happens when the Delta variant rips through an unvaccinated population? Well, it wasn’t easy – […]

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